Chapter 56 Eating up all his worries 

He could see Babsi and Jannet, the Hydras, Alex, John, Gitte, Min, even two guys he'd never seen before, but they had the same aura as Sarge on the video.

 He came closer, saw now why everyone was staring at the floor. Liz was on the ground, they had stripped her of everything but her BDU pants and t-shirt and she had heavy handcuffs on her back. He tried to go to Leonore, but Jannet grabbed him by the collar and held him down.

He gave up.

"April knocked her out twice in the exo and she had to be tasered twice to break the normal handcuffs." he heard one of the hydra girls say. Luke wondered, "What the hell?"

Liz moved, a holotattoo flickered on her back, she growled, tugged at the restraints, jumped up, landed in a crouch, Luke heard the restraints crack. 

If he hadn't known it was Liz, he would have thought it was someone else. Liz's eyes were bloody and, in combination with the black rings, just plain scary. Her pupils were huge. Her face was full of rage. She straightened up, Luke didn't know from where, Sarge stood behind Liz and took her straight into a choke hold. 

Liz screamed and punched and kicked at him. Luke saw his class flinch as it cracked. It seemed to take forever for Liz to give in and dangle in the hold. Sarge sat her down on her knees, just as he had done that time during practice. Her head was tilted forward and blood ran from her mouth and dripped onto the floor. 

Luke was captivated by the image. 

"I think I owe everyone an apology and an explanation. " Sarge began, Luke looked at him. He had blood running from his nose, which stopped when he held his nose. He was wearing BDU pants, t-shirt and boots, you could see red stains forming in several places.

" You wonder why, well ... "

He walked around Liz, then crouched down and squeezed and pulled on her neck and head. 

" Because of Liz " He looked at her, then at those present. 

"Those two are innocent," he pointed at Alex and John. 

" There was too much at stake. We couldn't let them find out we knew about them."

Liz began to stir.

An SUV pulled up, everyone looked. A man in a suit got out.

"AH shit Georeg really now?" came from one of the guys next to Sarge.

Sarge nodded.

Luke looked at the man, recognizing Uther. He patted Alex on the shoulder, walked over to Liz and stopped in front of her.

Liz had ended up in hell, had felt nothing, tasted nothing. She had only seen everything in black and white when she had seen the picture. She had really believed that there was something good in the world, but not for her. Her father wasn't there, George was gone. She was alone in her head, the nightmares were back, only worse, she woke up crying. 

For two months she had been dreaming of an infected, dismembered George reaching for her, and each time she was terrified. She had tried, really tried, to think of something else. Of all the shit Babsi wanted her to do. But when she was alone, it all came back, and then when she saw the bloody helmet on the screen. Torn to shreds by the infected, it was like a switch was flipped inside her. 

The world went red and she was just furious. 

She opened her eyes, she was on her knees, she saw the broken heavy handcuffs, she remembered. They had put them on her, the heavy handcuffs. Then she saw blood soaking through the fabric of her pants at the knees. Something had grabbed her, she saw shoes in front of her. Liz didn't want any more, her breath was rattling, if she'd had a gun she would have held it to her head and pulled the trigger, everything was fucked. She heard ghostly voices.

"Shoot me," she said quietly. It became quiet. She waited. A pain shot through her as someone tapped her forehead.

The pain was back, then her sense of smell came, her sense of taste, the world became more colorful.

She heard a sigh. 

"Liz..."

Her blood froze from one moment to the next when she heard Uther's voice. She ran, fear gripped her and she just wanted to get away. She felt herself being held by the back of her neck.

"No Liz, don't run away. Do you know why I'm here?"

She didn't answer and tried to free herself. But to no avail.

"I told you that if you ran away, I'd be there. Do you remember? I told you that if you had problems, you should come to me and not keep everything inside you. Right?"

She nodded slowly, feeling him move closer.

"Liz, why didn't you come to me when it all got too much for you? " His voice was so quiet that she could only hear it. 

Liz's heart tightened.

"I... was afraid that..." 

"Liz, I'm always here for you and that's not going to change." 

Her mind raced with these words.

"Good, you look up now and look at the people."

She didn't want to, her head moved upwards, she closed her eyes.

She didn't want to see it, inside she saw the faces in the machine that had shouted at her.

She heard a sigh.

"Just open your eyes." 

That voice, why did she have to hear that voice? Maybe if she did, the voice would go away. She expected to see angry, hateful faces, a military command.

She opened her eyes, saw her mother and sisters, her aunts, looking at her anxiously. Saw the Hydra girls looking at her with concern. She saw George's class just staring, she saw Luke being held by Jannet. 

Liz wondered why. Her gaze was drawn, it ended at her father. How long had he been standing there, she wondered. His face was worried. She wondered who the people standing there were.

"Everyone's worried about you Liz," Uther continued. " You mustn't freak out Liz. You will stand up right now and apologize to them. Do you understand that?" 

She nodded slowly She felt the back of her neck clear. Slowly, she stood up, walking slowly towards her father.

"I'm sorry, Dad." 

He tousled her hair.

"You'd better go and see your mother and the others." 

She looked at John, who smiled at her. 

" You'll pay for the broken interior Liz."

She nodded and went to her mother, not knowing what to say to them. She stood in front of them. They hugged her. Then to the hydra girls.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as the guys she'd never seen before moved around. She found it strange, she had only heard limited so far, it was expanding. She heard the chatter of the students, the vehicles on the base. 

"Shit shit shit, Ethean get the medset."

She turned slowly, her father had seen it too. The guys put someone on a crate, he choked and threw up and the blood landed in front of him.

"That was a shitty idea of yours, about you being fit," came from a blond with a thick full beard. 

Liz only heard a soft laugh and was led there as if by magic.

"Broken nose... super all the wounds are open again, what are you doing near her..." came from another bearded man who was crouching and dropping bloody bandages on the floor.

They looked at her as Liz stood in front of them. She heard a choking sound and blood fell to the floor again.

" Great, the last time he puked blood like that was after the fist fight against the mutant gorilla in Africa," came from the blond who patted the puker on the head. 

"You're not done yet!"

Liz had a faint idea what was going on, her heart pounding as her head lifted and Sarge looked at her with a bloody mouth and nose. 

" Liz, you haven't been to all of them yet, you can come to me after." 

Liz froze, she winced.

" You heard him, now go. " The blond pointed at the students. Liz stared at him. 

" I promise you, we won't let you near him unless you're ready."

She was scared, Alex put an arm around her.

"Come on, I'll help you." 

He went with her.

"Really George, we shouldn't have left you alone."

She heard Sarge laugh.

"You wanted a career, how could I say no. You were just hanging out and chasing chicks."

" Says the guy who scratched the boss for contracts. George, there was nothing."

She heard Sarge laugh again. Then she stood in front of the class.

" I'm sorry..." it came out of her.

"It's okay, Liz, will you stay for the dance?" 

She fell silent, then nodded, turned around and came back to them. 

The blond looked at her, patted Sarge's cheek.

"Wake up, your beast is here." 

Sarge struggled to get up.

" I should have had an espresso ..." He had straightened up and reached into his pocket.

"Is your head clear again?" he asked. Liz nodded, hesitating. She didn't know whether it was true or a hallucination. 

" What am I going to do with you...? You know, I didn't think you'd freak out like that, Liz. Well, it's not your fault. When I was in town waiting for the idiots to trap me, I saw cats and they reminded me of you and your family. "

She looked at him uncomprehendingly, even as he took something out of his pocket and tied it around his neck. She heard her father laughing beside her. Confused, she lowered her eyes and felt her neck.

"Really, George, a cat collar?"

She really did feel a collar.

"What, she's like a cat."

Liz looked at Sarge questioningly.

" I'm keeping you Liz." Then he slumped. She caught him. Looked at the blond.

" Well, now you're demoted to house cat."

She heard her father laugh and walk away. She couldn't believe it, hugged Sarge to her. 

" Shit Ethean we have to go. "

" What? Why, we can't leave George behind."

"We'll check on him later at the hospital, those two brutes saw us."

Liz watched the two run off, she heard a gasp. Mei and April joined her. 

"Damn, it really was them. " came from April. 

Liz looked after them. Mei stroked her cheek. 

"Liz, this isn't an illusion."

She hugged Sarge further. She looked at April, who had a cut on her lip.

"I'm so sorry..." 

She hugged Liz. 

Then looked at Uther, who came closer again and put his hand on her head.

"You go with him and rest."

Liz nodded.

Luke stared at the scenery. It had been the best decision to come here. He saw Gitte approaching Jannet.

"A cat collar..." she said. Gitte waved her hand in front of Jannet's face.

"Earth to Jan."

She blinked and looked at Gitte.

"You can let go of Luke." 

She looked at him and let go of Luke, he breathed a sigh of relief. He watched as the paramedics took Liz and Sarge away.

"Is it all right if I go?"

Gitte nodded. 

"Did you see the way Alex was laughing?" 

He heard Gitte say and looked briefly at Jannet. 

"Why did we never give Alex one?"

" It never occurred to us..."

He looked at Uther, who whispered something in Liz's ear and then took his hand off her head. Luke had the feeling that Liz had lost all her anger. He saw Tes smiling at him and hugging Liz before she was taken away by the paramedics. 

Now that Tes was standing next to Uther, she understood Jannet's words a little more, although he had usually always seen them both like this. Tes next to him made him smile, she pointed at something on her phone and walked to the SUV.

Luke went to his class, they chatted as usual. They decided to go to a burger joint, he had come to terms with the fact that Leonore fancied Eddi. He, Lina, Leo and Eddi arranged to meet up the next day to visit Sarge. 

The media were flooded with pictures from Vienna, Babsi had been right. 

There were no pictures of the bodies that had been executed. Although Luke had once seen a picture on an evening program of survivors who had been locked up by Sarge in an emergency bunker and told of the executions.

 In tears, they described what the executed had done to them and others. It was calculated that only 0.1% had survived the attack on Vienna, i.e. 5000 people.